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The big story right now is the U.S. stock market roller-coaster ride, a dangerous time of Donald Trump’s own making. I’ll leave the deep dive into the economics of it all to those who cover the markets. Instead, let’s look at the rifts Trump’s tariffs are causing within MAGA-world.
Trump’s continued tone-deafness about the economy is doing him no favors. A lot of people, many of whom voted for him specifically to “fix” the economy, are feeling the effects of his tariff policy. The stock market, which 62% of Americans invest in, has lost $11 trillion in value since Trump took office, $6 trillion since his tariffs went into effect last week. Anyone with money in a 401(k) account has lost value — especially worrisome for people close to retirement who don’t have the luxury of waiting for the stock market to bounce back.
As the U.S. inched closer to recession over the weekend, Trump went golfing. And then bragged about his handicap. In the same impromptu press availability on Air Force One on Sunday, a reporter asked if there was a level of market pain that would make him pause the tariff rollout? “I think your question is so stupid,” he chastised. “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
What exactly is broken? A trade imbalance? Countries taking advantage of the United States? Maybe, but we have the largest and most robust economy in the world. He imposed a 46% tariff on Vietnam — Vietnam, which has a GDP that is 1.5% of the United States’s.
Trump has relied on Wall Street to line his pockets and support his policies. Not today. Goldman Sachs once again raised the probability of a recession, a prospect Kamala Harris repeatedly predicted a year ago.
Among Trump’s many longtime loyalists who are now vociferously voicing concern is billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. He called Trump’s tariffs “a self-induced, economic nuclear winter.” In a long post on X, he went after Trump.
“[B]y placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital,” Ackman wrote.
He suggested Trump pause the tariffs for 90 days and halt the additional ones he plans to impose on Wednesday.
“If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate,” he continued.
He ended his well-reasoned diatribe by saying, “This is not what we voted for” and wishing that “cooler heads prevail.” Trump 2.0 is conspicuously lacking cooler heads.
Just look at the administration’s differing explanation of tariffs. On one side you have Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and senior adviser Stephen Miller on the Sunday talk shows saying tariffs are here to stay, as they will supposedly bring back manufacturing and jobs to America. At the same time, on competing shows, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, were touting tariffs as a short-term negotiating tool to get countries to lower their tariffs. Which is it? It can’t be both.
Tariffs are driving a sharper, wider wedge between the White House MAGA faithful and Elon Musk. On Sunday, Musk directly contradicted his “boss” on tariffs. Musk said he wants a U.S.-European free market, no tariffs. Peter Navarro, Trump’s tariff henchman, assailed Musk, saying he is a car salesman who is trying to protect his own interests. I won’t quibble.
And then there’s the rift within Rupert Murdoch’s conservative media empire. One one side you have The Wall Street Journal melting down about the stock market meltdown. The paper’s editorial board has been upfront about its distaste for tariffs, saying, “Maybe Mr. Trump will claim victory and pull back if he wins some token concessions. But if a North American trade war persists, it will qualify as one of the dumbest in history.”
Just an elevator ride away is Fox News, where the pundits are still toeing the White House line.
Laura Ingraham told her audience to “ignore the Dow doomsdayers” as the exchange lost 10% by the end of last week. She suggested that “you have to think beyond the short run.” Easy to look down the road when you make millions a year.
Jesse Watters, another Fox host, suggested the tariffs would create small-town utopias where Americans make and purchase all goods and services. “These tariffs are for the children,” he said, apparently with a straight face.
Trump’s tariffs are even causing some of the Republican faithful in Congress to waver in their usually unassailable support for the president.
Seven Republican senators have signed on to bipartisan legislation that would allow Congress to end tariffs at any time with a simple majority vote. Trump said he will veto the bill.
Even ardent Trump supporters like Senator Ted Cruz have had enough. “Tariffs are a tax on consumers, and I’m not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers, so my hope is these tariffs are short-lived, and they serve as leverage to lower tariffs across the globe,” Cruz said on Fox.
Cruz and company are reading the electoral tea leaves and worrying about the 2026 congressional elections. Cruz predicts the midterms will be a bloodbath for the Republicans if the tariffs cause a recession.
For a man who values loyalty above all things, these defections have to rankle. The question is, will Trump’s anger over the disloyalty cause him to change course or dig his heels in deeper?
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Dan
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